Garden Cafe - Holburne Museum — Restaurant in Bath

This is one our favourite spots to come for a quiet coffee and sit outside and have been coming for years. However, our experience on 28/08 was really disappointing. My husband ordered our drinks (a tea and a cappuccino). When they arrived, my husband went to stir his cappuccino and half the cup was froth. We’re never ones to send something back or cause a fuss, but my husband is a barista and knew his coffee had been made wrong and the milk over-airated. He quietly went to the waitress on her way back in, asking if he could just have a latte instead as he didn’t want to cause a fuss. A couple of minutes later and the barista stormed out to the table next to ours asking “what could be done differently to the coffee”. My husband said it was acutually him who sent it back and it was mostly froth, and just quietly asked if he could just have a latte instead. The barista raised his voice and was very confrontational asking for reasons why my husbands coffee wasn’t right. We felt very awkward and attacked as other customers started looking round at us. My husband just tried to diffuse it saying that it’s fine, and he’ll just have a latte instead. The barista then brought a latte out himself and was very passive aggressive towards us. Although we were kind and tried to not make a fuss, his ego was evidently hurt and ruined our experience. It’s such a shame and has made us wary about...

Other than the setting of Sydney Gardens, this cafe is overpriced and underwhelming. I visited 4 weeks ago. We ordered 2 teas, which took about an hour to arrive. After waiting for 30 minutes, we asked at the counter whether the tea was on its way, but found they'd lost the order (which had already been paid for). The reason given was that a new exhibition had opened and they were very busy. But you have to question the logic of this, as for what other purpose does this museum cafe exist, other than to serve food and drink during exhibitions? Especially as only a third of the available seats were filled. This also happened to other people there - the tables around us also didn't receive their orders, after they were lost somewhere between the till and the baristas area only a few steps away. The museum as a whole was great however, the building conversion is beautiful and really makes the most of available sight lines to show off the work. I'd also recommend exploring...

Really lovely cafe, brilliant cakes (even the vegan ones were fabulous, I had a hard time choosing from 3 tasty-looking options!) and the sandwiches looked fab, though they only come out just before 12, and you can't order ANY until after midday so you might want to hold back in the queue! 😆 Very friendly staff even though it was ridiculously busy, didn't mind that I had no idea what my table number was, bless them. Plenty of seating, loos were easy to find (although they're down some steps, I don't know how accessible/ if there are accessible loos, sorry!) Dog-friendly as long as they're on a lead, several people with dogs inside and out - plenty of space for them / us all! The setting is beautiful, and the cafe is surrounded by large glass windows so on a clear day you still get to enjoy the gardens from inside. Rain, obviously, makes it a bit trickier (since cafes aren't usually equipped with windscreen wipers, perhaps that's a niche market for someone out...